I'd be happy to see them take ownership of the basement until they have a last place trophy named after them, but I think that people are getting tired of them ruining kids that could better shot elsewhere.

Cornuck wrote:I'd be happy to see them take ownership of the basement until they have a last place trophy named after them, but I think that people are getting tired of them ruining kids that could better shot elsewhere.

The Oilers and Islanders are exactly what's wrong with the league. Rewarding suckage by ruining a generation of talent for everybody. Crosby is clearly very very good but he's been on a decent team surrounded by good talent. The Oilers and Islanders on the otherhand have been dismal and ground their players down.

I really think the league ought to stop rewarding failure and look to Europe. Make two leagues (or more) and demote those teams that are rubbish (e.g. badly run). Only the top teams get a crack at Lord Stanley via the playoffs as well as prime-time TV coverage. - NHL Premier League or NHL Championship. In North American terms this is probably "NHL Ultimate" and "NHL Extreme" or something- The relegation battle makes for an interesting story every year and the crappy teams get pretty desperate- The promotion battle makes it interesting for the teams in the lower division- The overall league is bigger with a bigger fan base

I don't know how you blend the draft into this in a fair way, but I think the salary cap and roster limits have to play into it. In addition you may allow for player loans (e.g. Loan Virtanen to the NHL Championship for a season).

Basically allowing shitty teams to develop the best generational talent is completely mornonic and a wasted investment. Players like Hall could be so much better with suitable training and development in the right environment. Throw him into a team where he's the top dog because everybody else is so crap isn't great and doesn't force him to improve.

I think that we would see Bettman hand the Cup to the Canucks at the beginning of the season before we ever see the concept of of a two tiered NHL considered (not that's its a bad idea).

The idea of having a franchise lose value by being regulated to the 2nd tier goes against what the NHL's business side is all about.

For fans, we would just be happy with contracting down to 20 teams and giving the playoffs to the top eight teams, but that will never happen unless there's a huge economic collapse. And at that point, hockey could be the least of my concerns.

But in there has to be something to work with that is between these ideas and rewarding failure. Sadly, the league loves to reward failure as we've seen with the loser point and other attempts to let lesser teams have parity.

Wow - I hadn't thought about for a while, but I really hate the NHL brass that has taken the league into this mess.

Aaronp18 wrote:You know that the Islanders are sitting second in the East right?

While they may have sucked in the past, they may just have turned a corner and are playing quite well this season!

I do, but how long did it take to get there? Even a broken clock is right twice a day. They are absolutely not the model of a good franchise and have been a joke almost two decades.

Since 1994 (20 years) they have been to the post season 5 times and never got out of the first round. Their average spot to pick in the draft is 7th overall over the course of 20 years. They have 13 first round picks in 20 years that are between 1st and 5th overall (includes 2 years where they had 2 picks in the top 5).

So, you would bloody well hope they should be 2nd in the east by now, but what a waste of the league's talent pool to get them there.

Cornuck wrote:I think that we would see Bettman hand the Cup to the Canucks at the beginning of the season before we ever see the concept of of a two tiered NHL considered (not that's its a bad idea).

I agree.

However, the league needs to look at this holistically. It gives them a way to keep franchises and then downgrade them when money gets tight without having to relocate. Relocation is terrible for the NHL brand, even worse than the low fan counts of florida or phoenix. Why not bring in Kansas City, etc, but into NHL League 2. Show you can be well run and you'll end up in the top league.

So many things would need to change, and it will never ever happen, but I think it's better than a 40 team NHL with no tiering.

damonberryman wrote:I got to agree with the post that says the culture of Edmonton needs to change. As long as current management sits in the head office you could give the oil the Kings or the Hawks and end up with a losing team in a couple of years. Fire the management first, and let good hockey people make the needed changes.

It seems obvious to all that management heads need to roll in Oil Town.

As for on-ice changes in personnel...

I think if you're running a team in Siberia, you need to take into account which players are HAPPY to be there.

Even... which players + wives want to LIVE there.

Obviously from our vantage point, we aren't privy to that information.

But you also want players who aren't "losers".

Yeah, good luck finding folks who want to live in Edmonton who aren't losers!

I wouldn't be the only one shocked to see Katz terminate the entire management team.

Wow are the Oilers really bad. They get smoked by one of the shittier teams in the league in their own barn - the Coyotes. A team who the previous night got about shit canned by the Canucks.

There is only one person to blame now - Katz. To allow this to go on and on and on and not clean house of the people who put the team together is strange. Only one explanation for this - Katz has a gay man crush on Kevin Lowe.

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? - Plastics." - The Graduate